Wildly Loveable
Photos by Lindsey Stewart Photography
Lindsay Stewart Photography
March Cover - Wildly Loveable
Move over dogs and cats, it’s the Year of the Rooster, and farm animals and more out-of-the-ordinary pets are taking over the spotlight. In a time where pet ownership is on the rise, with more than 70% of all homes having some type of pet, it seems that more people are also choosing to own chickens, pigs, and other more unusual animals. EIL recently spent an afternoon on the marsh with some local residents who have non-traditional pets. We learned a lot and laughed a lot, and we can see why people choose these fabulous creatures to be part of their families.
Lindsay Stewart Photography
Elise Murphey with Bearded Dragon, Waffles
Elise Murphey and her daughters, Vegas and Adella, have a bearded dragon ("beardie") named Waffles, after a character in the movie “Rango.” Elise says they weren’t looking to become dragon owners, but this pet “chose them.” She explains, “Waffles originally belonged to a man who was sent off to Afghanistan with the Army, and his sister was struggling to care for her properly. His sister was a family friend of ours, and my aunt volunteered for us to take the scaley baby in. She knew that we already had some reptiles and would be open to giving the lizard a home. I didn't particularly want a beardie at the time but we took her anyway. After tons of online research, I discovered that she was actually far easier to care for than our other reptiles, and was also much more sociable. I didn't think she'd have as much personality as she does, or be as fun as she is. I'm very pleased that we took her in and she’s my favorite reptile now!”
Lindsay Stewart Photography
Waffles gets her close-up
So what is “playing” with a bearded dragon like? Elise says, “She's not very playful, and doesn’t do tricks. She enjoys being out of the tank and usually roams free in our home, or will lay still in the girls' laps while they watch TV. She likes to be held but usually only if she's being held by someone who is being still. Too many people handling her at once makes her want to hide. Otherwise, she likes to perch on a leg or a shoulder and look around.” Elise says just like her owner, she also really enjoys trips to the beach, “She wears a little leash and likes to ride in the bike basket to the beach, and is content playing in the sun and chasing gnats around. She's a desert animal, so the summer heat and sun doesn't overwhelm her at all and she loves it as much as I do. That is, until she spots a seagull! Then she will run under me or my chair and hide. She hates birds!” She does find the Murphey’s cat interesting though, and showing no fear, will occasionally try to take a bite of its tail. Elise says once Waffles played with a little puppy for about an hour, “It was really cute! She chased it in circles and ran after it then let it chase her. She had plenty of hiding places and wasn't afraid at all!”
Dogs wag their tails and bark. Cats purr and hiss. We wondered if can you tell the mood of a bearded dragon? “When Waffles is stressed, she will run and hide. She has a beard that she will flare from her neck, and can change the color of it and slightly darken or lighten the rest of her body as well. She will change colors when she feels threatened or when she sees prey. Typically, she is a lighter beige color when she's calm, so I think that color represents a good mood for her.”
Lindsay Stewart Photography
Elise and Waffles pretty in pink
Elise tells us, "If Waffles could talk, she’d probably say 'Let me out!' When she's in her terrarium and sees us, she'll bob her head or scratch to be picked up. When she's running free she will usually go to the door of the back porch and stare out of the window. She really does enjoy being outside. As long as there aren't birds.” She adds that the worst thing about having a bearded dragon is the size of the enclosure for her. It must be big, so it’s basically like having another piece of furniture.
For someone considering getting a bearded dragon, Elise says, “They really do make amazing pets, but with any reptile, it's so important to research their diet and their living requirements. Ensuring they have proper lighting, heat, and humidity can be expensive, and it is absolutely vital to their survival. A beach-loving insect eater is a pretty terrific sidekick to have on an island in South Georgia!”
Lindsay Stewart Photography
Lucy Gowen with pet mini Juliana pig, Georgia
Stacy and Michael Gowen purchased a mini Juliana pig, named Georgia Pop Gowen, for their daughter Lucy. Stacy says, “Lucy has been begging for a pig for three years. We did our research and we have a friend with a pet pig. Lucy worked jobs around the neighborhood to earn money and saved a lot. We knew she was serious about this, she was relentless in her pig pursuit, and since she has proven herself to be a responsible pet owner with the three dogs and two bunnies we have, we decided to go ahead and get her a pig for her 10th birthday.”
When Lucy is home, she plays with Georgia by taking her outside and giving her a lot of love and attention. And Georgia isn’t shy about demanding attention: she’ll nudge your legs or nibble at your toes to get it. One of Georgia’s favorite things is for Lucy to take a fork and tap her lightly and scratch her back and belly with it. When she does that, Georgia immediately lies down with a huge grin on her face. It’s adorable! But while Georgia loves to be cuddled and ‘forked,’ she does not like to be picked up! She starts squirming and squealing loudly as soon as her feet leave the ground.
Lindsay Stewart Photography
Lucy and Georgia looking fancy
What’s the dynamic between Georgia and the other pets? Stacy laughs, “Georgia is large and in charge! She wants to be friends with the other animals but they don’t really reciprocate. Everyone gets along fine, but she likes to mess with their toys and food. Georgia romps around the backyard just like the dogs. The funniest thing is to watch her chase the dogs around the yard. When she is very excited she gets what we call ‘the Zoomies,’ where she runs wild and fast in circles and flips and twists her body. She also loves to roll in the dirt—imagine that!” She adds, “But while everyone gets along, we still would never consider leaving the dogs and pig alone unsupervised, because there is a natural predator-prey relationship.”
Georgia loves to eat! If Georgia could talk, Stacy thinks she’d say “Feed Me!” all the time. Mini pig food from Tractor Supply is her main food, but Stacy says they had to start feeding dogs upstairs so she wouldn’t eat their food too. Georgia also eats a lot of greens and some fruits. She loves frozen blueberries, bananas, and pecans as treats. During the photo shoot, cheese and chocolate chip cookies acted as great incentive too. Stacy says, “Georgia will do anything for a treat. Lucy has taught her to sit and spin. She will also jump through a hula hoop.” And while being food oriented can be great as an incentive for behavior, Stacy says it’s also the biggest drawback to having a pig as a pet. “Georgia never sits down and relaxes like a dog will. She is always wondering where her next meal is coming from. The only time she will lie down is when she is in the bedroom on her bed. She is always standing up!”
Lindsay Stewart Photography
Georgia keeps Lucy laughing!
Stacy says because they’re extremely smart and low maintenance, a pig makes a great pet. “She came to us already knowing how to use the bathroom outside, Thank Goodness! We take her out just as you would take a dog out to use the bathroom. She is very clean and has no odor. She does not shed (so far).” Her advice to anyone thinking about opting for a pig instead of a traditional pet: “They are not like dogs. They are prey animals so their natural instinct is to be fearful. That is the main reason they don’t like to be picked up. They are expensive and need vetting just like a dog or a cat. If you don’t have them spayed or neutered, they can get tumors and also become very aggressive. If you're looking for a non-shedding energetic companion with a personality as big as their appetite, a mini pig might just be a good fit for you too!”
Lindsay Stewart Photography
Christie Richardson with dwarf Nigerian goats Billy and Lillie
Christie and David Richardson have always had a house full of pets. But when they moved out to “the country,” Christie started a little farm with some chickens and has now added a bunny and dwarf Nigerian goats, Bill and Lil. Goats have a reputation for being great companions for other farm animals like horses, cows, and chickens. According to historians, they’re the first animal to have been domesticated. Christie got the twin goats so they would protect their chickens from predators and she raised them from babies. Christie says, “They think I am their mother since I bottled raised them, so they follow me where ever I go. My son Cardin loves to hug on them, and everyone coexists happily: dogs, cats, chickens and goats.”
1 of 2
Lindsay Stewart Photography
Christie and Lil
2 of 2
Lindsay Stewart Photography
Christie and Bill
The goats’ idea of play is to jump on everything. (Did you know that there are wild goats that can climb trees and walk across a ledge not much wider than a tightrope?) They love to eat too, and are known for getting into the chicken food. Bill and Lil aren’t shy either. They’re affectionate and love to be rubbed. So if they want some love or some food, they “yell” and butt at you to get your attention. They also butt heads with each other over food. Christie says that the goats are very low maintenance and easy to care for, which came as a surprise. Even more of a surprise was the fact that they do NOT protect her chickens! But, all in all, Bill and Lil are clean, pretty good-natured and easy going animals that Christie doesn’t mind putting into a crate to take on the road for a visit with the kids at Cardin’s school. Who needs petting zoos when you’ve got a friend with animals like these right in their backyard?!
1 of 3
Lindsay Stewart Photography
Alex Camp and fancy rat, Oreo
2 of 3
Lindsay Stewart Photography
Oreo in the pocket
3 of 3
Lindsay Stewart Photography
Alex and Oreo share a smooch
Alex Camp’s fancy rat, Oreo, is also just one of a regular menagerie of pets that have been owned by the Camp family over the years, a bearded dragon, a squirrel, and other small animals. Alex’s sister, Leia, even kept Checkers, their guinea pig, company while we worked on the shoot. Why a rat? Wensdee says that a friend of their had a rat and it was very sweet, so they searched on the internet and found a breeder to get their own. Wensdee explains that it’s recommended that you get rats in pairs so they have a companion, but they wanted Oreo to bond with Alex, so they didn’t get a companion rat. As you can see, that worked out well! Alex and his furry friend are quite close. Wensdee says that Oreo loves everyone, including their ten month-old puppy. One of their activities is to play together with Alex on the trampoline. In addition to being cuddly and loyal, fancy rats are highly intelligent and easily trainable. Alex has taught Oreo tricks and she happily travels around on his shoulder, or even in a shirt pocket! If you shudder when you think about rats, this sweet thing will change your mind! Oreo is happily willing to share her favorite treats of cheese and popcorn with you, and Wensdee and Alex think if she could talk, this affectionate girl would probably say, “Hold me all day long!”
Kathi Williams
Sophie, Bucky & Huey at Duckworth Plantation
LeAnn Duckworth’s deer Sophie, Huey, and Bucky may not be considered pets in the traditional sense, because they are allowed to roam free in the wild, but they are definitely a part of the Duckworth Plantation family of animals. LeAnn has always enjoyed wildlife and animals and just being outdoors in general. Her husband, Jamey, and son, Will, are avid hunters and fisherman to say the least. LeAnn says, “Jamey promised me if we bought the farm I could have as many animals as I wanted. Well, we have a zoo now.” That zoo includes horses, cows, a donkey, and three deer that LeAnn is raising.
Photo provided by LeAnn Duckworth
LeAnn (and Taco) with her babies
Sophie, the doe, is about a year old. She’s very tame (She thinks that she’s a dog!) because she was raised by a human mother after it was obvious that her mother had been killed. A friend of LeAnn’s had been taking care of her for a while at home, but as Sophie begin to grow she needed a larger area to roam and play, so the friend brought her to LeAnn. Sophie took bottles for about 6 months and then graduated to a nice healthy salad consisting of strawberries, grapes, lettuce, etc. every morning. She also gets corn and a high protein feed. LeAnn chuckles, “My husband says I feed the deer better than I feed him!”
A fisherman found a baby buck who was probably only a couple weeks old shivering and wet on a sandbar on the Altamaha River and heard that LeAnn took in fawns to raise and release (she had raised two deer, Tinkerbell and Little Man, to adulthood and released them previously), so brought him to her. LeAnn says, “I named this little baby Huey after my dad, because he always loved to fish at the river there. We nursed him for several weeks around the clock and he continued to struggle. We almost lost him at one point when he wasn't getting enough vitamins and the vet helped us out with some injections. At that time, he began to start growing and eating salad with Sophie. He’s about seven months old now, and is a very special boy to us. He will come in the house often and just follow me around. He’s always on the carport waiting for me to arrive for feeding time when I pull up at the farm in the evenings.”
Bucky was found as an abandoned baby alone in the woods by a friend of LeAnn’s from Hazelhurst. He raised him as long as he could with no place to keep him. LeAnn says, “He ended up bringing him by to me, and he fit right in with Huey and Sophie and began to learn our routine after a couple of weeks.”
Kathi Williams
Life at the farm.
Right now, Bucky and Huey still get bottles, as LeAnn is in the process of weaning them. All three growing deer are released and still come home every day for feeding time. While they wait for their meals, they love to supplement by eating the flowers and bushes around the house. LeAnn says, “I certainly can't have all my beautiful plants and greenery as I'm used to, but the sacrifice of having God's amazing creation around our family every day is worth it all to me. I sure love all my animals. Duckworth Plantation is now where my family calls home and we cherish the serene outdoors of the wildlife.”
If you didn't already know, the EIL staff is comprised of animal lovers and made up entirely of pet owners. We enjoyed spending time with every one of these wildly loveable creatures, from lizard to deer. Studies have shown that pets help you to live longer, healthier, and happier, so don't feel limited by traditional pet choices if you've got love to share.